Riaz Haq writes this data-driven blog to provide information, express his opinions and make comments on many topics. Subjects include personal activities, education, South Asia, South Asian community, regional and international affairs and US politics to financial markets. For investors interested in South Asia, Riaz has another blog called South Asia Investor at http://www.southasiainvestor.com and a YouTube video channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkrIDyFbC9N9evXYb9cA_gQ

Saturday, February 9, 2019

Pakistani-American VC Asad Jamal Invested Early in China's Baidu

Pakistani-American venture capitalist Asad Jamal hit it big with Baidu, China's search giant worth over $90 billion in market capitalization today. Jamal founded ePlanet Capital in Silicon Valley in 1999 and became an early investor in Baidu at its founding in 2000.

Asad Jamal

In addition to its search business, Baidu also runs an e-commerce platform with an online payment tool, develops and markets web application software, and provides human resource related services.

"I first experienced this Chinese tech dynamism when, inspired by the late-1990s Internet start-up culture, I moved to Silicon Valley and founded ePlanet Capital, a venture capital firm. I was new to the field and unsure what to expect. In 2000, I met Robin Li, a Chinese entrepreneur in his twenties who was seeking funding for his new company, Baidu. Based on conventional investment criteria, Baidu’s chances of success seemed low. The company had no track record, limited funding, and an inexperienced team, yet they were aiming to challenge search giants Google and Yahoo.
But I soon learned that in the new Internet world, these obstacles were perfectly normal and surmountable by visionary, passionate entrepreneurs with big dreams and ideas. Consequently, my firm went ahead and invested in Robin’s vision. Within five years of that first meeting, Baidu went from little more than an idea to being the leader in China’s Internet search industry, leaving Google and Yahoo far behind. Today, it is one of China’s top three Internet companies, forming the so-called BAT triumvirate along with Alibaba and Tencent. Robin himself is now the Larry Page (or Bill Gates) of China, with a net worth of over $10 billion".

Jamal believes that China offers a good example for Pakistan to follow to develop its own technology business to "break its cycle of poverty". Here's an excerpt from an article he wrote for Project Syndicate:

"The good news for Pakistan and other countries in a similar position is that tech start-ups require far fewer resources than traditional large-scale industrial firms. Whereas the latter typically need hundreds of millions of dollars in capital, plant and machinery, and bank loans, tech companies need only a small team of smart people, computers, modest funding, and mentorship. Young Pakistani entrepreneurs are just as well placed as their Chinese counterparts were two decades ago: they need big ideas and encouragement to build on them. Here, of course, the provision of venture capital is essential. Pakistan should therefore establish a national venture capital fund to promote technology entrepreneurship. Moreover, China’s rise as an economic and technology leader gives Pakistan a unique opportunity to learn from its neighbor and collaborate with it in education, science, and technology. And Pakistan should leverage its historical ties with US and British universities in these areas".

Here's a video of Asad Jamal's speech at Islamabad National University's inaugural event also attended by Prime Minister Imran Khan:

Asad founded Good Planet, a non-profit global foundation, to support educational projects and relieve world poverty. Good Planet works with the UN Education Envoy in supporting achievement of Millennium Development Goals in Education, particularly in underdeveloped countries in Africa and Asia. He also sponsored Singularity University in Silicon Valley, which seeks to utilize exponential technologies to solve the world’s pressing challenges. He graduated with a B.Sc. (Honors) from the London School of Economics, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.

‘Don’t miss the boat’, #Pakistan #PMImranKhan tells #investors in #Dubai. “This is the time to come to Pakistan, when it is just going on the upswing. This is the time to invest in the country – and don’t miss the boat” #WGS2019 #UAE http://bit.ly/2Sp1t7f

Addressing the World Government Summit in Dubai, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday made a strong investment pitch for his country, advising investors “don’t miss the boat” as Pakistan goes on a business-friendly “upswing”.

Khan, a former cricket player, mentioned a wide-ranging “ambitious reforms programme”, which also includes various opportunities for businesses “to make money”, tax reforms, deficit cuts, tourism development, and a new visa regime.

“This is the time to come to Pakistan, when it is just going on the upswing. This is the time to invest in the country – and don’t miss the boat,” Khan told a huge crowd of summit delegates during his main address at the Madinat Jumeriah resort.

Pakistan, Khan said, is already seeing “optimism and investors are coming into our country. We feel that this is the time that Pakistan will take off”.

He said Shaikh Mohammad had told him earlier “you must allow businesses to make money; investors must make profits. And the reason is simple… if they can make money, more people come and invest. So this is what we’ve done”.

Khan added: “We’ve started working on ease of doing business… we’re changing our tax laws, which were very cumbersome.”

He also pointed out that Pakistan has “the best tourism potential… Pakistan has probably one of the best mountain scenery anywhere in the world. Half of the world’s highest peaks are in Pakistan; we have 1,000km of coastline; the oldest historical monuments, as old as anywhere in the world; we’ve the Indus Valley Civilisation; ancient cities”.

Pakistan, Khan added, is also poised to benefit from a unique offering of “religious tourism”.

“We have the ‘Makkah’ and ‘Madinah’ for the Sikhs – the Sikh religion has its two holiest sites in Pakistan and we’ve just opened those sites for Sikhs.”

There are important Buddhist sites too and Sufi shrines all over Pakistan, he said.

“And we’ve opened a visa regime. For the first time in Pakistan, we have 70 countries which can come in and get a visa at the airport.

“What we’re doing is, we’re opening up the country; we’re opening up for tourism and investors.”

I had a great conversation with a young Pakistani entrepreneur earlier today (2 AM that lasted until past 5 AM EST). He was born year I graduated from KGS!But he reflects the entrepreneurial- and aspiring for Pakistan - spirit our class lacked. In our class the achievers mostly hightailed it out of the country.Maybe because we were not of entrepreneurial bent. We were just going to be professionals and saw limited future in Pakistan.

He has land in Karachi and wants to set up an IT City;but he has big plans beyond just IT. Wants it to also have a think tank providing info and also testing ideas for practical use in Pakistan. He has businesses in Pakistan and Dubai. He is on one of the PTI related whatsapp groups I am on and he approached me directly.

Some of us are giving back to Pakistan, and now the time is right for really providing more support because the Govt is so receptive and it has supporters like this young Pakistani I connected with. Many of them young people are in IT in Pakistan and outside it-including serial entrepreneur (in US and Canada) Shahbaz Khan. Some youngsters are already activists supporting local communities on the ground.

I told him that my niece has revealed to me by the example she set that Pakistan has a lot of potential for entrepreneurs. They just need financial support (seed money) and support in biz management skills. There is lots of low hanging fruit available there that has long been plucked in US and developed countries!

I also told him that outside what VC's support it is brutal for entrepreneurs in US. I saw that from how a cousin of mine has struggled with getting financing.

You have to hand it to Imran Khan. He's doing all he can, going all out with a big WELCOME TO PAKISTAN sign wherever he goes in the Arab world. I have never seen such excitement before from any Pakistani leader. He is eloquent, dapper, and charming. Girls fall head over heels for him, even now, such as the wife of the aging Malaysian PM.

He has had many lives. Oxford-educated playboy friends with Princess Di who impregnated women in LA. World-famous cricket star and legend. An opposition leader who shut down Islamabad with his sit-in. The new prime minister who wants to build an Islamic Welfare State that no one else has ever built since the original edifice crumbled and was replaced with draconian monarchies, one more vicious than the other, and now in his third marriage to a woman who is his spiritual counselor and who shows up very infrequently, clad from head to toe in white.

I hope tourists will start pouring into the country. But I seriously doubt it unless the security situation improves. And there is not much to see in Mohenjo Daro and Harrappa. The ruins are a big disappointment for the average tourist. Plus they are in terrible shape. The mountain peaks have been there forever.

Ahmad: " But I seriously doubt it unless the security situation improves. And there is not much to see in Mohenjo Daro and Harrappa. The ruins are a big disappointment for the average tourist. Plus they are in terrible shape. The mountain peaks have been there forever. "

I am expecting about $40 billion to pour into Pakistan in the next 5 years if Imran Khan stays and begins to deliver this year

$20 billion is already committed by investors from Gulf and China. I have faith in Imran Khan’s skill in doubling it with positive results.

It’s always helpful for political and economic stability to have both the civil and military leadership on the same page

It seems that the average increase is about 18%. Yet somehow that has not helped Pakistan in foreign exchange problem. And it was happening when corruption was high. If one assumes 18% increase is the base line IK govt should show substantial increase in this change.

Like India, Pakistan also runs large trade deficits. It also depends on foreign investments, remittances from overseas Pakistanis and foreign debt for its dollar reserves. So why does Pakistan have serious recurring balance of payments crises?

Unlike India, Pakistan ranks very low among recipients of foreign direct and portfolio investments as percentage of its GDP. . Part of it is the perception of insecurity since 911. The real security situation has dramatically improved in the last few years but the perception continues to lag.

Pakistan's exports have also lagged behind India's as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). In fact, Pakistan's exports have halved from about 16% of GDP in 2003 to 8% of GDP in 2017. India's exports have increased from 15% to 19% of GDP in the same period, according to the World Bank.

#Pakistan Citizen's Portal #app, launched last year by #PMImranKhan, wins 2nd spot among 4,646 #MobileApps from 87 countries competing in #Dubai at the #WGS earlier this week. #Indonesia came out on top while the #UnitedStates stood at the third spot. #PTI https://www.dawn.com/news/1463589

The citizen's portal app was developed by a team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa "free of cost" in a "record time of 45 days", the prime minister said.

"This is the first time any government-owned mobile application [has] reached this level in Pakistan."

So far, around 250,000 out of 420,000 complaints that were registered through the app have been resolved with 55 per cent 'satisfactory' feedback from the public, according to statistics posted by Prime Minister Khan.

The application has a 4.5 rating on Google Play and a 3.5 rating on Apple Store.

The World Government Summit is a non-profit organisation, that holds an annual event in Dubai. According to its website, the World Government Summit is a "global platform dedicated to shaping the future of governments worldwide". The organisation aims to "set the agenda for the next generation of governments" to tackle both global and local challenges with the help of technological innovations.

The event held by the World Government Summit serves as "knowledge exchange platform" by bringing together governments and private entrepreneurs. Leaders, entrepreneurs and experts from over 150 countries are invited every year.

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About Me

I am the Founder and President of PakAlumni Worldwide, a global social network for Pakistanis, South Asians and their friends. I also served as Chairman of the NEDians Convention 2007. In addition to being a South Asia watcher, an investor, business consultant and avid follower of the world financial markets, I have more than 25 years experience in the hi-tech industry. I have been on the faculties of Rutgers University and NED Engineering University and cofounded two high-tech startups, Cautella, Inc. and DynArray Corp and managed multi-million dollar P&Ls. I am a pioneer of the PC and mobile businesses and I have held senior management positions in hardware and software development of Intel’s microprocessor product line from 8086 to Pentium processors. My experience includes senior roles in marketing, engineering and business management. I was recognized as “Person of the Year” by PC Magazine for my contribution to 80386 program. I have an MS degree in Electrical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
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